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Volume 37, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 1364-971X
  • E-ISSN: 1758-9150

Abstract

Cinema is a powerful tool for depicting and critically addressing the dual nature of identity (composed of both individual and social traits). This article analyses two underrated titles of the post-2005 wave of Basque-language cinema: (Sharrock 2015) and () (Almandoz 2018). In both films, certain liminal third spaces – the ‘non-places’ coined by Augé and the ‘in-between’ spaces formulated by Bhabha – seem to interact with the misfit characters, who live between rootedness and lack of belonging within a new social context created by the influx of migrants and the economic crisis in the Basque Country. The article argues that these on-screen third spaces (mainly the railway station and the peripheral marshlands in and , respectively) become a kind of resilient deuteragonist in their own right, i.e. witnesses or accomplices to the protagonists’ wanderings and their shallow and fleeting relationships. There is, however, a difference between the non-places featured in , which mainly evoke solitude and similarity, and those in-between spaces present in . The latter appear as metaphorical hybrid places that can harbour otherness and foster collective solidarity, thus playing a role in shaping the new centrality of Basque identity.

Resumen

El cine es una poderosa herramienta para representar y abordar críticamente la doble naturaleza de la identidad (compuesta tanto de rasgos individuales como sociales). En este trabajo se lleva a cabo un análisis fílmico de dos títulos infravalorados dentro de la nueva ola de cine en euskera posterior a 2005: (Sharrock 2015) y () (Almandoz 2018). En ambas películas, ciertos terceros espacios liminales – los ‘no lugares’, acuñados por Augé (1995) y el espacio ‘entre-medio’, formulado por Bhabha (1994) – parecen interactuar con los inadaptados personajes, que viven entre el arraigo y el desarraigo dentro de un nuevo contexto social surgido a raíz tanto de la afluencia de migrantes como de la crisis económica en el País Vasco. El artículo argumenta que estos terceros espacios en pantalla (principalmente la estación de tren y las marismas periféricas en y respectivamente) se convierten en una especie de deuteragonistas resilientes por derecho propio, es decir, en testigos (o cómplices) de las andanzas de los protagonistas y de sus fugaces y superficiales relaciones. Sin embargo, existe una diferencia entre los no-lugares de , que evocan principalmente la soledad y la semejanza, y los espacios entre-medios presentes en . Estos últimos se revelan como metafóricos lugares híbridos que pueden albergar la alteridad además de fomentar la solidaridad colectiva, desempeñando así un papel en la configuración de la nueva centralidad de la identidad vasca.

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/content/journals/10.1386/ijis_00119_1
2024-03-28
2024-09-07
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/content/journals/10.1386/ijis_00119_1
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  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): Basqueness; belonging; cultural hybridity; espacios intermedios; hibridad cultural; identidad personal; identidad social; in-between spaces; migración; migration; no lugares; non-places; personal identity; pertenencia; social identity; vasquismo

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